Humility and Arrogance — Hadith 12

12. Al-Naḍr ibn Suwayd narrated from Ḥusayn ibn Mūsā, from Zurārah, from one of them (al-Bāqir or al-Ṣādiq) (a) who said, “ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (a) married the slave wife of his late uncle, al-Ḥasan (a), and got his mother married to his [manumitted] slave. [1] When ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān heard about that, he wrote to him saying, ‘O ʿAlī ibn al- Ḥusayn, it seems you do not know your position in the eyes of your community and your station among the people! You married a slave woman and got your slave married to your mother? ! ’ So ʿAlī ibn al- Ḥusayn wrote back to him, ‘I have [read and] understood your letter, yet our exemplar is the Messenger of Allah (ṣ). He married off his own cousin Zaynab to his [freed] slave Zayd, and he himself married his slave maiden Ṣafiyyah bint Ḥayy ibn Akhṭab. ’”